


King's Pet

by MissDeMeanor (MissLiterary)



Category: Red Queen Series - Victoria Aveyard
Genre: Angst, Because All The Canon Characters Want To Kill Him, Cal/Mare Mentioned, Denial of Feelings, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Families of Choice, Fluff, Getting to Know Each Other, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Irony, Just Unresolved Tension All Around, Lots of Angst, Love/Hate, M/M, Made For Each Other, Master/Pet, Maven Needs A Hug, Mental Health Issues, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Not Toxic But Not Ideal Either, Original Character(s), Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Romantic Comedy, Romantic Fluff, Romantic Gestures, Set After War Storm, Slice of Life, Slice of Life Palace Edition, Unhealthy Relationships, Unresolved Emotional Tension, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, With Good Reason But Still, but lots of fluff too, quite a few of them - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-22 02:47:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30031839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissLiterary/pseuds/MissDeMeanor
Summary: Just when Maven Calore thought his life couldn't get any worse, it did.Captured once again, Maven's dragged away to a far away kingdom with the purpose of becoming a pet, but not just anyone's pet. The newly crowned king requires a very specific companion, and Maven meets all of the qualifications.With the rest of the world out for his head, Maven only has two choices: Escape these chains and run back into the lands that want him dead, or break under the king's rule.Maven knows his answer. There's no way he's breaking anymore.
Relationships: Maven Calore/Original Character(s)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 6





	1. Prologue

This time, it was Prince Enzo taking the throne, and this time, it was the kingdom of Norta’s turn to offer up a royal for the taking, and this time, the pickings were slim.

Usually there was plenty to choose from, as kings and queens often beared many children. There had been no less than fifteen young royals for Prince Enzo's father to decide between when he had taken the throne.

This time, they weren't so fortunate.

There were only two names written on the list, leaving a lot of depressingly blank space on the rest of the paper. Two names, two choices, literally the minimum amount they needed before they were forced to skip this kingdom’s turn in the cycle.

One royal to take.

One to leave behind and rule.

This left no room for mistakes, such as accidentally killing one of their targets.

Everyone in the hunting party felt that pressure.

The single sheet of paper lied on the table, with absolutely nothing else to accompany it aside from two photos.

King Tiberias Calore the Seventh.

“Ridiculous name,” someone muttered.

And King Maven Calore.

Somehow, they were both currently kings because, apparently, the kingdom of Norta was going through some sort of government turmoil. A rebellion had been spreading across many of the countries, but luckily it didn’t matter to the hunting party.

In fact, it made infiltration that much easier.

They just had to wait for both kings to be in the same place, at the same time, so they could pick one at random, as Prince Enzo had ordered.

“The first one we spot,” the leader of the party declared, “is the one we go with.”

"You sure you don't want to just go with this one, boss?" One of the hunters pointed to Tiberias's picture. "Rumor has it the other one—"

"No," the leader cut him off with a sweep of his hand. "Could be either one, doesn't matter, but it has to be the first one we see."

"Rumor has it the other one's not right in the head, boss," the hunter finished. "You really want to put that on the prince?"

 _"The prince_ is the one who gave this order," the leader said. "We get an opportunity to snatch one, we take it. No questions asked."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, everyone! Thank you so much for taking a chance to read my story. I know the prologue was quick but the next chapter will be out in just a bit if you would like to read the rest!
> 
> Red Queen is the series that got me back into reading, and Maven's my absolute favorite. I know why so many people don't like him, but he definitely stole my heart. I couldn't wait to write a story for the series. I didn't think it'd be this, but the idea would not stop playing in my head while listening to music, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed this prologue! Constructive criticism is always welcome!
> 
> Have a wonderful day (or night~), everyone!
> 
> With Love, Miss Understood


	2. Hospitality At Its Finest

  
Someone ripped the bag off his head.

Maven sputtered, absolutely pissed.

“Oh, look!” A woman with a crown turned to a man with a smaller one. “He’s adorable, isn’t he?”

It was the third time a bag had been unceremoniously pulled from his head, unleashing his hair and letting it fall gracelessly in front of his face, in less than a week.

A _week._

A week of bouncing between captors, of getting manhandled at every opportunity—even when he was being completely complaint. Another week of poor food and poor living conditions. He still felt the ache of a black eye from getting punched, still felt the wretched feeling of when his crown had been ripped from his head and thrown away.

This was also the third time he had been captured, but the bag over-the-head thing came to his mind first. He liked his hair done; he wasn't used to looking so undignified.

He was getting betrayed by so many people that now he was having to keep track of them all. Surely, he had broken some record for the number of times a king had been captured.

He remembered escaping for, what he estimated to be, maybe half an hour before he had been ambushed by a collection of people wearing insignias he didn’t recognize. He had figured, whoever they were, they must have worked with at least one of his enemies, hired to bring him back alive so as to be killed in person.

He had many enemies.

His gaze raised to the three people up on the dais, two sitting upon thrones.

He had no idea who these people were.

That would either prove to be a wonderful thing or a terrible one.

“Just look at him, darling. Oh, don’t be so sour. Would you just look?” The woman kept waving her hand, trying to gain the attention of the man, who kept his eyes trained devotedly on the wall.

A queen and a prince, a mother and a son, if Maven had ever seen a pair, and he had, once, in a mirror. It brought back memories he’d rather not have.

Finally, the prince’s eyes landed on Maven, if only to appease the woman.

“I have told you, Mother, I bear no interest in this creature.”

_Creature?_

Even with hands bound behind his back and on his knees, Maven mustered his most intimidating glare. The man quirked an eyebrow at it, unimpressed.

“You haven’t even gotten to know him,” the queen insisted.

“Nor do I plan to.”

“Oh, for love’s sakes. Cove! Talk to him.” The queen turned to the man hovering by her throne, a high-end servant judging by the bejeweled choker adorning his throat.

He raised an eyebrow at her. “I do not believe anyone could talk to your son, My Queen.”

“Hopeless, the both of you.” She waved her servant off and resumed admonishing her son. "At least give him a chance. Do not forget how much of a challenge it was to acquire him."

“Which is the very reason why I told you not to do it,” the prince said without a glance at her.

Was this a family squabble he was witnessing, while forced to kneel on hard tiles with a guard flanking his either side, his hair a wreck? They weren’t even paying attention to him. Him, who he guessed was the sole purpose of this gathering.

“If you don’t mind my asking,” he began, “who—”

The prince raised a hand. "I do mind if you must know."

Maven ignored him. “Who are you?”

“He has very little manners, Mother. This will never do.”

“You lost your opinion in the selection when you refused to have a selection to begin with,” the queen said, then cleared her throat and flashed a smile down at the prisoner on her floor. “What’s your name, sweetheart?”

“Not sweetheart.”

The queen lost the brightness in her smile. She shot a look at her servant as he started laughing.

“See?” the son said with a gesture. “He’ll never do. Guards, take it away.”

They went to seize him, so Maven seized his chance.

“Maven Calore!”

The guards hesitated, looking to their leaders to see if they would order them to continue. They did not.

Having snatched back the room’s attention, Maven straightened his back and added, “The King of Norta.”

“Formerly,” said the prince.

He gritted his teeth. “Yes. I am a prince now.”

“Also formerly.”

He wanted to burn something.

“Oh, how cute!” The queen lifted her clasped hands to right beneath her chin. “I wouldn’t have expected something so precious from a royal. Usually, they come with such crude names, no finesse at all. Wasn’t your brother given a family name, Tiberias I believe? Tiberias and some number? Tiberias the Seventh? Oh, this is so much better.”

He stared at her.

She said his name slowly, as though practicing it. “ _Maven._ Ah, I love it! It’s a girl’s name, isn’t it?” she asked her servant.

“I believe it is in most cases,” he agreed.

“And it’s so simple! Nothing quite as ridiculous as Tiberias. That would get tiresome so quickly.”

Was he being insulted? He felt insulted.

“Of course, you can always change it if you wish,” the queen added lightly to her son, lying an affectionate hand over his arm.

Maven held his breath as he listened to her words, thinking them over. He didn’t understand where this was going, but he could see the direction, and it was nowhere good.

“However, personally,” she continued, “I think you should keep it. Not everyone gets a pet that comes with such a lovely little name.”

Maven’s world crashed around him.

_“A pet?”_

His high-pitched voice had the people on the alter staring down at him curiously.

“He speaks without being spoken to,” the prince reproved. He waved a hand at him, his first real movement that held any emotion aside from disinterest. “This is an outrage, Mother. This thing is feral. I cannot waste precious time training this.”

_“Training?”_

“There he goes again!” The prince leaned back in his throne, tired and exasperated. “Give him as a gift to one of our cousins. This is not something that I will accept.”

“You know why we can’t do that. Only we can have Silvers of royal blood.” She placed a heavily ringed hand on her chest to emphasize the we. “It’s tradition. Breaking tradition, why—it would bring terrible misfortune upon the kingdom. We simply can’t have that right before your reign begins.”

“Then release it back into the wild,” he demanded.

Maven wanted to laugh hysterically into the marble flooring. _The wild._

“He’s not some stray who can survive on his own.” The queen spun on him, outraged by the proposal. “Do you remember how many kingdoms want his head? Do you know how long he would last before he died?”

“I’d give it a week,” the servant piped.

Maven couldn’t help but think that the servant had an awful lot of room to speak for being a servant.

The queen pressed two delicate fingers to her forehead, the pinch of her eyebrows suggesting an oncoming headache. “Why, he very nearly died the day we found him.”

The horrible part was, Maven couldn’t argue against that. He had almost died after losing his throne, within a week.

The queen released a breath in her attempt to regain her patience. She placed an only slightly aggravated gaze on her son. “I gave you an entire year to pick someone. A year, My Prince. I know that’s not very long for some people, but I fought to give you every bit of that time, and you’ve squandered it.”

The prince frowned but did not refute that.

“The time has come now to pick your companion, and Aphrodite has brought forth this lovely little one as the winner.”

Maven’s gut wrung painfully in his stomach. He tried to summon an image of what a “pet” would be, but didn’t have many sources to pull from. He had only ever had what he would claim as nothing other than prisoners.

He had an inkling it wasn’t the same to these people.

“He’s not at all that big. How tall are you, child? Five-foot-something?” The servant inquired.

Anger pooled into his already twisted stomach. “Five-foot-eight,” he seethed.

“Such a temper,” the prince commented.

“But pliable,” argued the servant. “Pale, obviously doesn’t go out much. Likely a bookworm, antisocial, especially with that attitude. Slight, almost too thin really. It might not be as much of a challenge as you may believe, Your Highness.”

“Have you finished?” Maven demanded. “Or does your list of insults continue?”

“But his temper, and lack of control,” the prince pointed out. “It has no place by my side, anywhere _near_ my side.”

“Nothing that can’t be fixed,” assured the servant. “He’s frightened, clearly. Turning his fear into anger. It’s a survival tactic. Common among the untrained and unacclimated.”

“And the uncivilized,” murmured the prince, staring right into the eyes of his prisoner.

His prisoner fumed under the gaze.

“Which is why we're the only ones to be afforded such royal-blooded Silvers in the first place. We are fully equipped to handle such a responsibility." The queen glanced between the two men, her smile full of confidence as she said, "It's nothing that hasn't been done before."

“I have no decision in this,” the prince paused to sigh, “do I?”

“None whatsoever.” The queen clapped her hands together and beamed down at her prisoner. “Congratulations, young Maven! You have been granted the once-in-a-lifetime privilege and honor of being selected as the official Royal Consort to my son, Heir to the throne of Adoracion, The Crown Prince Enzo."

Maven wanted to scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: “I want to write a Red Queen story! It used to be my favorite series, I must do something for it.”
> 
> Brain: “Oh! I’ve got just the thing.”
> 
> Me: *reading idea* “This seems a bit...I don’t know, not exactly what I had in mind. Do we have something a little less controversial?”
> 
> Brain: “Corn!”
> 
> Me: “Corn?”
> 
> Brain: “Cal and Kilorn. It’s perfect.”
> 
> Me: “King’s Pet it is then.”
> 
> Oh, yes! And I did change my penname. I thought I had the perfect name but then one day I wrote the word "misdemeanor" and loved it.
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed my story today! Thank you so much for reading it!
> 
> With Love, Miss DeMeanor


End file.
